The Winter Olympics at Sochi appear to being falling somewhat flat, as hardly any spectators turn up and senior officials complain the games have no buzz.

Photographs of Olympic venues show that entire banks of seats are practically deserted, while the one or two fans who did struggle out to see the world-class sporting events wrap up against the cold.

Embarrassingly, an American member of a top Olympic committee said that many of the Russian spectators were seeing the sports for the first time ever, and behaved without enthusiasm - except when Russian athletes took centre stage.

Room for improvement: The majority of seats at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre were empty yesterday

All by myself: A woman checks her phone before the start of a speed-skating event held yesterday

Mexican wave, anybody? Senior Olympic figures have spoken out about the lack of atmosphere, as seen here in the sparse crowd at a speed skating event

Anita DeFrantz, a U.S. member who sits on the policy-making executive board, said : 'Here,
people are more reserved.

'There's not a lot of rah-rah,
except for the Russian athletes who get a great reception.

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'I think as
time goes on and they get used to it, there will be more excitement. A
lot of people have not seen these sports before.'

Gerhard Heiberg, a Norwegian who helped organise the acclaimed 1994 winter games in Lillehammer, called on Sochi's organisers to act over the empty stadiums.

Lack of enthusiasm? One senior Olympic organiser claimed that many spectators had never seen the sports before

Sparse: At least this spectator for a downhill skiing race had somewhere to put his bag

Valiant effort: These Russian fans cheer and whoop at the men's biathlon, despite rows of emptiness behind them

IT'S NOT THE WEATHER KEEPING THEM AWAY! WARM TEMPS IN SOCHI

It's easy to assume that cold temperatures could be keeping spectators away - but in fact, the Sochi Olympics are starting to feel more like the Summer Games.

On Monday, temperatures soared to 61F (16C), forcing skiers to put snow in their racing suits to cool down.

The mountain venues are expected to
return to freezing Tuesday, organizers said. But from Wednesday, warmer
weather is in the forecast.

Organizers said the temperature could reach 63F (16C) on Thursday.

At the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, organizers canceled the first of three jumps after sunny skies softened the snow in the landing area.

To combat the possibility of high temperatures, organizers have been storing large amounts of snow and say they have enough to continue.

According to Mr Heiberg, despite the
large volume of empty seats, it was still proving impossible to buy
tickets for the clearly under-subscribed events.

He said: 'There are not enough people. 'They
have to see to it they fill the stadiums.

'I understand that
all tickets have been sold and people who want to buy tickets they
cannot buy tickets, so they should do something about this to get school
children, or students or even military people without uniforms out
watching.'

Some events, like figure skating, have been packed. Others, like biathlon, have been half-empty.

The
men's downhill - considered the marquee event of the Olympic Alpine ski
schedule - failed to draw a full house Sunday, with a turnout of about
6,000 fans at the 7,500-capacity venue.

Alpine
skiing has little tradition in Russia and the games haven't pulled in
the cowbell-ringing crowds familiar in Western Europe.

However, some events, such as figure
skating, have had almost entirely Russian crowds. The speedskating venue
was also noted for its boisterousness when the Russians or
Dutch were racing.

Embarrassing: Sochi organisers have said they will start calling on volunteers to fill up empty venues

Bleak: Previous Olympics have also had problems with empty stadia

The 2012 summer Olympics in London were also plagued by a lack of spectators for the early events, which many complained was down to an excess of corporate seats which were not used.

Sochi organizers said today that they have started calling on volunteers to fill seats at less popular events.

Spokeswoman Alexandra Kosterina said some volunteers enrolled in a motivation program are offered tickets to see competition after hours.

'It depends on the events,' she said. 'If we see that there is not a turnout and there are seats available, then, yes, we invite some of the volunteers to join in.'